Dr Braverman

[Anonymous]

Anyone go to Dr. Braverman? Did it cost a fortune for testing? Any info you have is appreciated.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Have you already done a phone consult with him? It's free but he gives the same exact advice to EVERYONE just to warn you. I've compared notes with at least 5 women who've consulted with him. I was totally turned off by his approach...yeah I know it was a free consult but come on. If you were really interested in helping, please help. Testing does cost a small fortune, I had the paperwork somewhere. You can apply some of the testing costs toward treatment I think but maybe only $2k of the $4K that the testing costs. Plus then it will cost you money for each re-group etc. after that.

[Anonymous]

I have not consulted with him but looked into it. I got the professional salesman vibe from him. And his fees are OUTRAGEOUS. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

I was turned off by the initial consult as well. It sounded as though if you cycled there with him, a lot of the steep immune management fees would go away. I ended up switching to SIRM and doing some immune testing there -- and then treating borderline high NK cells with intralipids and prednisone. I don't know if immune issues were my main problem, because we also did some other things differently with that cycle (which has been successful to date).

I will say that if I had really lot of RPL losses, or if my husband and I had tested positive for HLA matches, I would have more strongly considered him. Also maybe if I was younger and willing to do more cycles. But I had pretty much decided that this would be the last cycle I would do -- and if it didn't work, we would look into a surrogate. I felt better about that than trying more on our own.

[Anonymous]

PP here -- And, given the expense of Neupogen and consulting with him, I felt better potentially spending the money on a surrogate. Also, I personally was not willing to do thinks like IVIG or high doses of prednisone. I don't know if that's what he would have recommended -- but SIRM was willing to do extent of the immune treatment that I was willing to do.

[Anonymous]

I'm a patient of his. His fees are high, yes but I believe you get what you pay for. Part of the reason for his fees is because he has his own research team and is designing his own blood tests to get the information he needs to treat his patients.

He is absolutely a pioneer in new treatments and will search outside the box for treatments that will work for his patients. Every other doctor out there would have given up on a patient like me but he did not. I'm extremely thankful for him and firmly believe I would not have my family without him.

You will get the same advice because unless you have actually had his tests run or had some portion of the tests done somewhere else then he isn't even working with comprehensive information to come up with a treatment plan.

[Anonymous]

BTW there are reputable places to find Neupogen online where you can get it cheaper. It's also not unheard of for it to be covered, I know 2 people who only had a $40 co-pay.

[Anonymous]

I am his patient. His fees are outrageous, he doesn't prescribe the medications and has often failed to give me personal attention as I am not someone who has series of miscarriages per say. I have had 1 miscarriage and 3 chemical pregnancies out of 8 IVF cycles. He is very good at reproductive immunology but I am not happy with the treatment I have received.

[Anonymous]

I am 5:56 back. I have been his patient since last year. Those women who went to him prior to that, may be a couple years ago, have good experiences. His clinic wasn't very crowded then and he had time to look after his patients. I have heard stories about him responding in 5 minutes to emails and calling you personally. With reproductive immunology gaining momentum and women going to him after failing 1 cycle or even none cycles has kept him super busy letting him ignore patients like me. I also wanted to add that I was pregnant 4 months ago and my immune levels were out of whack when monitored after getting BFP. It took him 3 weeks to get back to me with results, and I miscarried the same day he asked me to bump the dosages. It as a total waste and I still feel angry. The whole testing and his fees cost me a fortune for that 1 cycle. $13,000.

[Anonymous]

20:56 here I get where PP is coming from. With my first successful pregnancy all the treatments were new and he was just getting his name out there. (This was over 3 years ago) and now everyone wants to be his patient. I've told him numerous times he needs to train someone and I think he's open to that, but hasn't been able to find the right person who also believes in what he is doing and is willing to come to NY and learn his trade. It would be ideal though because he wouldn't be so overburdened with patients who want to go to him as their last ditch effort to stay pregnant.

I also had several chemical pregnancies and he treated those as a symptom of implantation problems. They certainly were not discounted by him at all. I think what people are seeing now is just a symptom of how many patients he has and the fact that he wants to help everyone but probably can't. There aren't enough hours in the day.

I did basically manage my own care, but I've been through this before and knew what to do. I'm kind of the poster child for his treatments working. Ideally I think he would prefer his daughter help him out (she's done with med school) but I'm not sure she wants to take up the torch since she probably sees how busy he is. He really does have a lot of compassion for his patients and wants to help them all.

[Anonymous]

I also just wanted to add that according to NY state law he can not prescribe infusions across state lines. So if he is prescribing IVIG or IL for you then he will send a copy to your OB or other doctor to prescribe. Or you have the option of traveling to NY to have the infusion done. This was not the case 3-4 years ago, but it is now due to the laws changing.

Otherwise he prescribed all my meds. Neupogen, prednisone and would have prescribed my lovenox if my MFM had not already taken care of it. Luckily my OB had no problem copying the order for the intralipids. She figured he is the expert and is managing my care and knows what he's doing.

[Anonymous]

I am 5:56 here. I am not talking about not prescribing infusions. I understand the NY law. He does not even prescribe pills like prednisone. He recently reviewed my results and asked me to take 40 mg pred whereas my RE agrees to prescribe 20 mg only. I hoped Dr. B would give me the remaining 20 mg but he denied saying I am not his IVF patient. But I am his immune and pregnancy monitoring patient. I have paid him $6000 for consultation and he cannot prescribe prednisone which has nothing to do with Ny law. And if he couldn't prescribe, why tell me what I was taking was insufficient. My RE doesn't agree to prescribe 20 mg more, my OBGyn and my PCP have no idea about use of high dose steroids for ttc.

[Anonymous]

I am 5:56 again. Sorry for multiple posts. But I am pretty sure the next question someone will ask me is: Does he monitor you personally? The answer is yes and no. I have seen him thrice so far at his clinic. I have also offered to travel to his clinic if he wants to monitor me. But they have no such option for their immune patients.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry PP I had no problem getting prednisone prescribed from him. Maybe it matters I was not an IVF patient of his though. My MFM and OB offices work with him so it's possible to find doctors who are willing to go by his protocols. If you are his patient then I don't understand why he would not be able to prescribe meds.

[Anonymous]

Also his policy for monitoring has changed over the years. For my first I never went to see him, my second I had to go at 6w and 12w and now It's back to being recommended but not necessary. I'm not sure how much matters though if you are doing IVF or not. I imagine he wants to monitor you personally if possible for an IVF cycle.